26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our Gospel this week follows last week’s Gospel, and it is almost as perplexing and complicated.

We find Jesus retelling a story to the Pharisees about a rich man who declined to help the poor man, Lazarus.

When the rich man died, he went to Hell and saw the poor man Lazarus off in the distance at Abraham’s side. The rich man begged to be saved, but now it was his turn to be denied. Furthermore, Abraham denied the rich man’s request to warn his family of the doom that would befall upon them should they not heed the cry of the poor.

Like Jesus, Amos, in our first reading, is also frustrated by the complacency of the wealthy. And so we wonder: are we to conclude that the wealthy have no chance of heaven? Or that their wealth works against them at a supernatural level?

No. Rather it is invitation to continue to line of questioning and reflection we discussed last week about the accounting of the resources and gifts we have: are we mindful of them? Are we using them for the benefit of others, or just our own?